Fifty years ago, during the tests of the rocket, which was supposed to take people to the moon, there was a fire. Three astronauts died at the launch site - but their deaths were not in vain.
January 22, 1967, Cape Canaveral, Florida
One of NASA's most famous astronauts, Lt. Col. Virgil Grissom, became increasingly disenchanted with his latest mission. And he had every reason to be angry.
A former fighter and test pilot, Grissom was also the second American to go into space (and third overall). In March 1965, he became the first astronaut to return to space with the new Gemini two-seat spacecraft. A year later, he was selected as the first commander of Apollo, a spacecraft designed to eventually transport a crew to the lunar surface and return them safely to Earth.
If everything went according to plan, Grissom would lead a mission to the moon. But so far, however, even getting Apollo 1 off the ground was a problem.
"The flight was literally cursed," says Jerry Griffin, head of navigation and control systems - later director of flight - of the Apollo missions. "When the Apollo 1 spacecraft was brought to Cape Canaveral, it was not in top shape and a lot of work had to be done to get it ready."
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The crew of three astronauts had to go through routine tests
The Apollo missions were planned in two phases. Apollo 1 was the first manned flight in the Block 1 program. Built by North American Aviation, it was designed to launch a crew of three and test a bunch of new systems in orbit around Earth. The Apollo spacecraft, capable of sending astronauts to the moon, was to be built at Block 2.
“It was an extremely sophisticated spacecraft compared to anything they had built before,” says Allan Needell, curator of Apollo at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC. "There were many re-tests, some of the work was mediocre."
In fact, problems with wiring, coolant leaks, failures in the life support system and glitches with radio stations constantly surfaced. “They had quality control issues, deadline issues, testing issues,” Nedell says. "By the time the Apollo 1 capsule was built, they also had communication problems - it was literally tormented by problems."
Even the astronauts themselves thought the capsule was cursed. The Apollo program was clearly not in the best shape.
13:00, January 27, 1967, 34th Launch Complex
The so-called Plugs-Out Integrated Test was supposed to be a complete simulation of the Apollo launch under the supervision of the Cape Canaveral control center and the Houston mission control center. The only difference between this and the actual launch was that the Saturn rocket, which carried the crew capsule, had no fuel.
“It was a dress rehearsal, we were fully staffed,” says Griffin, who was at his console in Houston at the time. "We started the countdown and everything was very realistic."
As commander, Grissom entered the command module first and took his place in the left seat. He was followed by Roger Chaffee, who sat on the right, followed by Ed White, who, as the pilot of the command module, took center stage. White distinguished himself on the Gemini 4 mission in 1965, becoming the first American to go on a space walk. A highly skilled Navy pilot, Chaffee was the only rookie astronaut.
Almost immediately after they took their places, problems started in the test. Connecting the suits to the oxygen supply systems, Grissom reported a sour smell, "like buttermilk," and samples were taken and analyzed. There was nothing strange in the air supply, and after an hour and twenty minutes the hatch of the spacecraft was finally closed tightly.
The complex hatch consisted of three sections - an inner section for sealing the spacecraft, a heat shield and an outer door on the fairing. This outer part should be discarded shortly after launch. It took a few minutes to close and check all the components.
When the countdown resumed, the air in the capsule was replaced with pure oxygen. Oxygen was maintained at a higher pressure inside the capsule than outside. This mimicked the increased pressure of the spacecraft in orbit and allowed the astronauts to breathe freely.
The Mercury capsule for one person, the Gemini capsule for two - all went through the same procedure without any incident. It was so routine that the safety manual for testing the spacecraft did not say anything about the dangers of strapping the crew in an experimental space capsule in a pressurized oxygen environment.
17:40, Apollo 1 spacecraft
Throughout the day, there were communication problems between the ground and the spacecraft, which was only a few hundred meters from the control center at the launch pad. As time went on and more and more systems were connected to Apollo 1, it sometimes became impossible to make out what the astronauts were saying. “I remember Grissom was very annoyed,” Griffin recalls. "He was literally going crazy."
"Lord Jesus!" Exclaimed Grissom. "How are we going to get to the moon if we cannot establish communication between two or three buildings?"
After more than four hours of sitting on couches in the cramped spacecraft, the countdown was put on hold again as the crew tried to troubleshoot the communication system and isolate the problem. Finally, at 18:10 everything was ready for the final energization and launch.
6:31 pm (5:31 pm local time), Houston Mission Control Center
“They stopped to fix the problem, and we all did, most of the people went on hiatus,” Griffin says. “For some reason, I left my headphones on and I heard a noise like static and then silence for a split second. And then I heard the word "fire" from the crew, and that was all."
Officer Manfred von Ehrenfried was at the next console. “We couldn't believe what we were hearing,” he says. - Did you hear the same as me? Did you hear that?"
“I yelled at a few guys,” says Griffin. "Hey, something's going on there!"
“I thought something fell off on the launch pad or something,” he says. "And while the trial and the case, everyone returned, and it took several minutes to find out that the fire was in the spacecraft."
18:31, Cape Canaveral, Apollo 1 spacecraft
“Fire, I can smell fire,” - this phrase sounded the first alarm bell that something was wrong in the capsule. It was not clear whose voice: Chaffee or White. "Fire in the cockpit."
A few seconds later, the fire broke out from the place of its appearance and extended into the wall along the left side of the module. The flames rose vertically and spread across the cockpit ceiling, scattering beads of molten nylon from the straps and mountings onto the crew. All subsequent communication was unintelligible, the only thing that could be made out was a "terrible fire". The transmission ends with a cry of pain.
Fifteen seconds after the first report of the fire, on-site television cameras showed flames filling the command module.
“Then you hear the people on the site trying to save the crew,” says Ehrenfried. “And then you gradually begin to realize that everything is very bad. We didn't know how bad it was until we heard in our headphones, "We lost them."
02:00 28 January 1967
Seven and a half hours after the fire, the ground crew finished lifting the remains of the crew from the capsule and began sifting through the debris in search of the source of the fire. The interior of the apparatus resembled an incinerator - every surface was burnt, blackened, or melted. While trying to rescue the crew, 27 people at the launch site swallowed smoke and two were hospitalized.
Despite the potential conflict of interest, NASA gave the go-ahead to conduct its own internal investigation into the causes of the incident, without external political interference.
The council of inquiry included astronaut Frank Bormna, one of the most accomplished astronauts in the world, who recently completed a 14-day mission in Gemini 7. Griffin instructed Bormann's team to investigate design flaws in the Apollo spacecraft.
Apollo 1 was gradually dismantled, trying to isolate the cause of the disaster, but I cannot identify a single source of ignition. “We still don't know where the fire started,” Griffin says. "There was a temporary wiring in the spacecraft, it could have a short circuit or a spark."
“We learned that day,” adds Griffin, “that you can burn anything in a pure oxygen environment if you can find a place to start.” And after the fire, a variety of flammable materials began to burn in the capsule, including stacks of checklists, Velcro fasteners and nylon mesh.
Nedell agrees that high pressure oxygen was the main cause of the disaster. “They did it with Mercury and Gemini, they were very lucky that nothing happened,” he says. “There were hundreds of times more wires and pitfalls in Apollo.
April 1967
Just three months after the accident, an investigation report on the Apollo 1 fire was published. Although the exact cause was never found, the report identified flaws in design, manufacturing, installation, and quality control, as well as errors in management and testing.
The only consolation that was in the conclusion was that the astronauts fainted and died from inhaling toxic gases a few seconds after the fire was reported. The commission concluded that since the capsule door opened inward, the pressure in the cockpit meant the crew had no chance of opening the hatch and running out.
Recommendations included redesign of the spacecraft, improved quality control, and new test and emergency procedures. “We ended up with a much safer spacecraft that was better,” says Griffin. "The event was tragic, but we went through it and found out that it was in part for the better."
Nedell agrees: “As a result of this fire, they went back and reviewed every detail and procedure that could have affected the flames,” he says. Apollo is much more reliable than it could have been if it hadn't happened."
Apollo 1 was the last time a pure oxygen environment was used in a capsule on earth. In future spacecraft, the crew had to breathe a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen on the launch pad and pure oxygen only in space, where it was less dangerous. Since there is practically no convection in microgravity, fire travels more slowly in space than on earth and is easier to contain.
A few months after the event that could have completely buried the American dream of landing a man on the moon, the Apollo program returned to service. Not a single crew flew on the Block-1 spacecraft, but on October 11, 1968, the first manned Apollo-7 mission went into orbit to test the new command and service module of Block-2. And just two months later, Bormann was in charge of the Apollo 8 crew on a mission to orbit the moon. Seven months later, Neil Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface.
Apollo 1 was a tragic event, but it could also save the program, Griffin said. If something like this happened on the way to the moon, the program would definitely be canceled.
January 2017
Soon after the fire, the Apollo 1 spacecraft was relocated to NASA's Langley facility in Virginia. It remains there to this day, disassembled and stored in a controlled atmosphere container.
Looking at the state of the Apollo program in January 1967 - deficiencies in the capsule and failures in quality and safety control procedures - the loss of three astronauts seems almost inevitable. But it could have been much worse. Many more people would most likely die if the crash had occurred with the rocket fully fueled.
Since then, two more NASA crews have died in the fire. In 1986, seven astronauts died when the Challenger shuttle exploded shortly after launch. In 2003, seven more died when Columbia broke up on re-entry. While valuable lessons have been learned from both disasters, the tragedy of Apollo 1 remains relevant to this day, as a new capsule, Orion, is being developed.
“The most rigorous quality control and management procedures are a priority,” says Needell. “The Orion spacecraft that NASA is currently developing is a reverse engineering process based on many lessons learned during the Apollo era. It would be completely illogical not to take into account the changes made as a result of the fire.
There is also a deeper cultural heritage of Apollo, of which the tragedy of Apollo 1 is a part. “The Apollo program became a symbol of the 'we can' of that time,” says Nidell. - If we can send a man to the moon, why can't we solve the energy crisis? Or cure cancer? It was a symbol of a time when collective action could be organized even to achieve such a difficult goal as landing on the moon."
It is important that we continue to learn these lessons and continue to explore space. Before his death, Grissom began writing a memoir about the space program.
“If we die, we want people to accept it,” he wrote. “We are taking a great risk and hope that if something happens to us, it will not delay the program. Space exploration is worth the risk to life."
ILYA KHEL